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'We are part of her legacy’: artist picked for Martha Hughes Cannon has talent for sculpting female figure

There are nine statues of women in the National Statuary Hall collection in Washington, D.C., where two figures of historic significance represent each state. There are 13 statues of men named John — 14, if you count Connecticut’s carving of Jonathan Trumbull, the only man who served as governor in both an English colony and a U.S. state.

In an effort to address the imbalance in recognition of women’s contributions to history, the Utah Legislature voted last year to send Martha Hughes Cannon — a polygamist, suffragette and doctor who was the first state senator in Utah and the country — to represent the state in Statuary Hall.